Middle Knowledge Anyone?

Last year I was invited by a friend to join a group and study Systematic Theology as taught through Wayne Grudem's condensed tome "Bible Doctrine".  Little did I know, I knew little about God.  I can say that this study has been a profoundly positive experience.  We are called in the Gospel of Luke to "love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind".  This study would be an exercise in the latter.  Studying God's word only serves to strengthen our walk, correct our mistakes, and make us fall more in love with our Creator and Father.

This study is not without its trials however and as we found quickly this exercise involves a bit of heavy lifting.  As we approached the topics of God's Sovereignty/Providence and The Doctrine of the Application of Redemption the group had more questions than our book had answers.  The author, espousing a reformed view, introduced to the majority of us to a theology we had never heard before.  For many of us it was troubling, for some interesting, and for others completely outrageous.

Some in the group agreed with the view of the author and some certainly did not.  I found myself in a slightly different situation.  I understood both points of view, found scripture to support both, but knew that both could not be true.  I would like to briefly explain my dilemma and then offer a solution that I feel is reasonable and well supported by scripture and logic alike.  

It seems from my observation that the Christian world is divided primarily into two camps, the Calvinists (reformed theology) and the Arminians.  Both groups are nearly identical in their beliefs but part ways with respect to God's sovereignty over creation, his interaction with creation, and the process through which he redeems sinners.

Calvinism

The Calvinist holds that God is sovereign over all things, ordains all events, and renders all things certains.  God, according to a Calvinist, is even sovereign over the hearts and decisions of Men (although they claim that Man continues to make free decisions, see compatibilism).  God ordains all things (including rape and the holocaust) but is not morally responsible.  The Calvinist defers to the secret will of God and quotes St. Paul when he says "does the potter not have a right over His clay".  Said another way "God is righteous and just and can do what he pleases".  We find scripture that seems to support this view of God's sovereignty over creation:

Ps. 115:3 But our God is in the heavens; He does whatever He pleases.

Ps. 135:6 Whatever the Lord pleases, He does, in heaven and in earth, in seas and in all deeps.

Ps. 103:19 The Lord has established His throne in the heavens; and His sovereignty rules over all.

1 Sam. 2:6-7 The Lord kills and makes alive; He brings down to Sheol and raises up. The Lord makes poor and rich; He brings low, He also exalts.

Heb. 2:8 Thou hast put all things in subjection under His feet. For in subjecting all things to Him, He left nothing that is not subject to Him.

Eph. 4:6 One God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.

Pr. 16:33 The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord.

Calvinists also hold that God elects those whom will be saved.  It is not based on foreknowledge but is rather credited to God's secret and sovereign will.  It then follows that Christ did not die for the sins of the world but rather for those whom God elected.  This election is unconditional.  God moves irresistibly in the hearts of sinners to turn them towards himself.  The reprobate (those not chosen by God) cannot chose God.  They will never have a chance to do so and the Calvinist holds that Christ did not die for their sins also.

I can appreciate the Calvinist's humble view of their own salvation.  No man can boast here.  Salvation was truly and 100% a gift.  Man had no part in it, not even a decision.

I do however have an enormous problem with the idea that Christ did not die for all but for the elect.  What if my son Parker is not elect?  Is there anything that I can do?  Also, the Calvinists propose an interaction between God and man that is quite unusual.  Your thoughts and actions are guided according to the will of God.  God, in order to accomplish his purposes guides your heart and thoughts.  

Arminianism

Arminians hold that God, desiring to experience true relationship with His creation, has suspended his sovereignty (or rather is Sovereign over his sovereignty).  Arminians hold that tragedies (like rape or the holocaust) happened against God's will.  God did not will for free agents to do such things but has left said free agents to make free choices.  In other words "God is not in control of what happens on earth, free agents are truly free".  Arminians hold that Christ died for the sins of the world and salvation is available to everyone.  In a similar vein they believe that man can resist God's grace or fall from it.  Eternal security to an Arminian is not certain.  A crisis of faith late in life or at any time for that matter may cause you to fall from grace and lose your salvation.  To make sense of the Doctrine of Election Arminians hold that God elected "Christ" and that anyone who believes in Him is a member of this group.

Scripture seems to suggest (in defiance of the Calvinist view) that man has some responsibility in his salvation.  Christ calls us to "choose this day whom you will serve".  Why would Christ command us to chose if God is sovereign over our choices or if we have no choice at all (i.e the elect)?  Scripture offers the following:

"choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve" (Josh. 24:15)

"Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." (Mt. 11:28)

"If anyone wills to do His will, he shall know concerning the doctrine, whether it is from God." (Jn. 7:17)

"If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink." (Jn. 7:37)

"Repent, and let everyone of you be baptized" (Acts 2:38)

"Repent therefore and be converted" (Acts 3:19)

"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved" (Acts 16:31)

"but now commands all men everywhere to repent" (Acts 17:30)

"Whoever wills, let him take the water of life freely." (Rev. 22:17)

My Confusion

These two very well thought out theologies are enormously conflicting.  I understood the Calvinists argument that God is Sovereign.  I have read the various scripture that suggests that God chose us, we did not chose him.  Election seems clear and in disagreement with the Arminians view.  At the same time man is called to "pick up his cross" and "chose this day".  What is the point of our choosing if it is in fact God who choses?  What of the reprobate?

Insert Middle Knowledge

In the 16th Century a Jesuit theologian name Luis de Molina proposed a rather fantastic philosophical idea in an attempt to bridge the gap between mans free will and God's providence.  To do so he inserted the idea of Middle Knowledge.  Middle Knowledge derives its name from a logical ordering of events in creation.

The idea in layman's is this:

Before the creation of the world God in his omnipotence (knowledge of all things indefinitely) understood all necessary truths.  He did not know anything that was untrue.

IN ADDITION to his knowledge of necessary truths he is also aware of all counterfactuals.  A counterfactual is a statement like this: "if Phillip goes to Subway, he will freely order a 6" Meatball sub".  Even if I never go to Subway God knows what I would freely choose should I goto Subway.

It then follows that God in his omnipotence could create more than one possible world.  The world we exist in today is not the only world God had to chose from.  God could instead (before creation) survey an unlimited number of worlds.  He would know in each of those worlds all counterfactuals truths.  He could have actualized a world in which Hitler freely chose to be a pastor of church and in which the holocaust never took place.  Similarly he could have actualized a world in which I did not freely chose him.  God understood before the actualization of any one world what would happen in all situations in that given world and all others.  In conjunction with this foreknowledge of events and counterfactuals he intertwined his plan of Salvation beginning with Abraham and concluding with Christ and the apostles.   It is important to note that without God's "Middle Knowledge" or awareness of subjunctive conditions God would only have a knowledge of the future but lacking an ability to plan events (say the crucifixion of Christ).  God must understand not only what will happen but what will happen IF...

God chose to actualize one of an unlimited number worlds, we find ourselves in that world today.  By invoking this middle knowledge we are able to reconcile so many of the problems inherent in Arminianism and Calvinist (but mostly in Calvinism).

Is God sovereign over all things (including say the Holocaust)?

Yes, God knew when he actualized this world that it would take place through the free agent Adolf Hitler.  God ordained the Holocaust in the sense that he actualized the world in which Hitler freely chose to carry it out but he is not directly responsible for it, Hitler was given a free will.  God did know that Hitler would freely to chose to commit those atrocious murders.

Does God elect and are we predestined?

God knew before he actualized this world who would freely chose him and who would freely reject him.  In this way God is sovereign over those who receive salvation (by pushing "the button" to actualize this world he sovereignly chose those who would chose him).  He could have chose another world in which an entirely different group of people freely chose him.  While we freely chose, he chose this world according to his will.

The focus of Molinism is on God's knowledge of subjunctive conditionals or counterfactuals. God knew before creation what would happen in any version of creation that he chose.  He is sovereign over all things because he chose in the beginning which version of creation to create.  We are retain our libertarian free will as we live in the world created.

It is important to note that foreknowledge is not synonymous with fatalism.  Because God knows what will happen does not mean that he has rendered it certain.  This is a logical fallacy.  Today I went to Strawberry Fields and picked up lunch for my family.  I ordered my usual border chicken wrap.  That border chicken wrap when made had a definite weight x.xxxxxxxxxx... ounces.  God new before the wrap was made what the ultimate weight would be but it does not follow then that he rendered certain the weight.  The weight was unknown to me, although it could have been known.  God, different from me, knows all things including what the weight of my wrap would be.

In summary I am in disagreement with Calvinists about how God elects and brings sinners to salvation.  At the same time I am in disagreement with Arminians that God is not sovereign over all things.  We must rather understand his sovereignty in a different context, one of Middle Knowledge.  I am a Molinist.  Spread the word...